HANOI LINKED IN AUSTRALIAN HEROIN TRADE

THE Vietnamese Government was covertly promoting heroin trafficking in
Australia to blacken the reputation of expatriate Vietnamese and to raise
foreign currency, a prominent Vietnamese community leader claimed yesterday.

Dr Cuong Bui, the Liberal candidate for the Brisbane-based seat of Rankin in
last year's federal election and the former president of the Vietnamese
community in Australia, also warned that drug trafficking within local
communities would worsen without political reform in Vietnam.

"I have no doubt the Communist government of Vietnam is fighting against
Vietnamese people living overseas (mostly refugees from the former South
Vietnam) and trying to give us a very bad image in front of the Australian
population," Dr Bui said.

"Over the past 23 years since the end of the Vietnam War, all the crimes
involving Vietnamese in Australia are related to heroin. All deal with gangs
and trafficking."

A spokesman for the Vietnamese Embassy in Canberra described Dr Bui's
allegations as "a concoction". The spokesman said the Vietnamese Government
did not interfere in the internal affairs of another nation.

"We have nothing to do with drug trafficking. It is not true," the spokesman
said.

Dr Bui said he was unable to substantiate his allegation but was convinced
he was right.

Dr Bui claimed the trafficking in the high-grade, relatively low-cost heroin
presently being sold by Vietnamese gangs could worsen dramatically unless
political reform in Vietnam put an end to the corruption which was allowing
the drug trade there to flourish.

"The Australian Government and people must realise that if we don't have
political reform quickly enough, we may face chaos," he said. "The drug
trade could get worse."

Dr Bui's allegations were supported by Professor Doan Viet Hoat, a
Washington-based human rights activist who was expelled from Vietnam last
year after serving 20 years in jails and labour camps as a prisoner of
conscience.

"Heroin use in my country is everywhere, even in elementary schools,"
Professor Doan said. "Corruption is so widespread because the government
pays too much attention to security problems and not enough to social
problems.

"That is why prostitution and the heroin trade flourish, because of the
corruption and the abuse of power."

Professor Doan, who was awarded the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award in
1995 and the 1998 Pen of Freedom from the World Association of Newspapers,
is on a two-week visit to Australia, during which he pressed Foreign Affairs
Minister Alexander Downer to link Australia's continuing foreign aid to
Vietnam to a human rights dialogue.

During his visit to Brisbane yesterday, Professor Doan claimed it was in
Australia's self-interest to assist the creation of a democratic,
multi-party system of government in Vietnam as a means of undercutting the
heroin trade.

"A democratic government in Vietnam would pay more attention to the
problem," he said.

Professor Doan said the democratic impetus in Vietnam was getting stronger
each year but warned of a Tiananmen Square-like confrontation between the
people and the government if political and human rights reforms did not keep
pace with economic reforms.

"Aspirations for freedom are becoming stronger and stronger, more vocal and
more daring. But it is like boiling water with the lid of the kettle sealed
down tight," he said. "That is what I am afraid of, the explosion. It
creates the possibility for chaos."